Square Enix Madness

My first real post and the rant that made create this blog! It is about this announcement for Lightening Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

First, let me start by saying i am a huge fan of the FF series. VI-X were amazing and are some of my favorite games (although i had my issues with VIII). I even appreciated XII for its vast, well-done open world and innovative combat system (although the boring story and pathetic main character killed it for me).

Anyway, back to the video...

What a load of bullshit. Ever since Hironobu Sakaguchi left, Square-Enix has been rapidly declining. Its like they realized they could make more money with less effort by milking each new Final Fantasy dry before moving onto next one. Why bother starting from scratch each time when you could just continue where the last game left, right?

Their "Two New Concepts" are basically:
1. Reuse the same character and keep her exactly the same, except for her appearance.

Great. So that's basically 98% of all sequels ever. What a innovative idea.

2. Have a world that changes. A "completely unique and original idea".

So, day and night cycles. Season changes. NPC's with life schedules. Kinda like Zelda, Harvest Moon and Elder Scrolls respectively? Oh, a doomsday clock? Kinda like another certain Zelda game once did?

Oh and btw, we will be incorporating Facebook somehow. You excited yet?

Then the second guy comes on and basically does the same presentation in reverse with a few extra details. Then at the end admits everything is pretty much just a concept so far and thus, there is little to show/talk about.
Then why are they bothering with the announcement? Why not do a Special Presentation to market Verses XIII and show the progress on a game 6 years in development that has been reported as cancelled TWICE due to lack of media information. A game that has been absent from the past two E3's! A game they could probably talk about for half an hour without being desperate enough mention "waiting for trains" as a feature.

Then the 3rd guy comes on, shows us some concept art and reveals this "Driven World' is in fact restricted to 4 islands. Better, but still not great.
I mean...the highlight of his talk was that weapons would look different and might, maybe, possibly change stats and abilities. And we are supposed to applaud and grin like idiots over an idea that is pretty much standard for any game with multiple weapons? Why bother bringing the oil painting if you can't reveal it?!!

I liked XIII. Even with its linear path and the fact that by the time you got to the the open world section, you had nearly finished the game, making it mostly pointless. It was good, but not great. I haven't played XIII-2 yet, but i hear very good things and plan to give it a go. Hell, i will even probably end up liking this 3rd game. At least i hope i will...

But don't make a surprise announcement when you have nothing to show, then attempt to disguise your lack of information with metaphors about how the FF series is like crystals and roses. Especially not when you have a game that shows real promise, but is long overdue and has been keeping the Kingdom Hearts team busy away from making KH3. And definitely don't flat out lie, telling us about "new" features that have actually been around for years.

Rant Over